San Diego  Dr. Jonathan Lucas, San Diego County’s chief deputy medical examiner, is used to the polarized reactions he gets when he tells people he works with the dead for a living.

“Either they think it’s the most interesting thing in the world, or they find the soonest opportunity to either talk about something else or leave.”

Lucas trained as a forensic pathologist on the streets of New York, his time there capped off by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He spent three weeks processing victim remains before flying to San Diego.

In his 12 years here, he has never been in the spotlight more than in 2011, when the mysterious deaths of Max Shacknai, 6, and Rebecca Zahau, 32, at Coronado’s Spreckels mansion captured global attention.

He conducted autopsies on both, concluding with help from sheriff’s investigators that Max’s death was an accident and Zahau’s was suicide by hanging.

Now, he is second-in-charge of the county Medical Examiner’s Office, which investigates about 3,000 deaths each year.

Q: Was there a turning point in your schooling that led you toward forensic pathology?

A: In the early ‘90s, people didn’t go to medical school to become a medical examiner. No one wanted to be Quincy (M.E., a character from a 1970s and ‘80s TV show). As I went through medical school, I was thinking I wanted to be a surgeon or a family doctor, that was my plan. But in my later years in med school, as much as I enjoy being around people, I didn’t enjoy being around patients as much. I like the science, I like helping people and all that stuff, but I thought I would become cynical with so many people coming to me with problems. The irony with that now, of course, is that if there’s a field that generates cynicism, it’s law enforcement and this kind of work. ...

It wasn’t the dead people that attracted me to the field, it was the activity around the field ... being able to get out of the office and go to a crime scene, playing an integral role in an investigation, a mystery, if you will.

Q: What does a typical day look like for you?

A: We have a daily meeting, all the doctors, investigators and toxicologists. We talk about all the cases that came in in the last 24 hours. Then autopsies occur usually in the mornings between 9 and about lunchtime or after. In the afternoon it’s paperwork, meetings, phone calls. ... Intermixed are other things like court, going to scenes, talking to families.

Q: How many autopsies do you perform?

A: In my new job I do about 220 or 230 in a year.

Q: Are some cases more difficult emotionally than others?

A: What I find are people that are close to my age or that I can relate to on an individual level tend to hit home a little more. I would say for me, personally, suicides are just so pointless, especially younger people. I do my work and it certainly doesn’t stifle my ability to do my job at all, but those tend to get under my skin a little bit more.